The Debtor System: Starting with a debt of 1 billion

Chapter 22 Death Auction

Acha, sweating profusely, sat in front of her computer, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "Phoenix's servers use quantum encryption frequency hopping technology, disguising themselves as countless nodes scattered around the world. If I attack just one of them, they will immediately destroy the data and transfer it."

"23 hours and 45 minutes left." Lin Yu looked at the countdown poster with red text on a black background on his phone screen, his voice as cold as ice.

The poster features an enlarged diagram of the DNA double helix structure, next to which is a shocking caption: "Complete DNA Atlas of Angel, No. S-01, Starting Bid: US$100 Million. The buyer will receive exclusive technology to create 'perfect offspring'."

S-01 was Suya's code name in the files of that abandoned laboratory.

"Those bastards!" Acha slammed her fist on the table. "They actually treated Suya like a commodity, and they're going to sell this inhumane gene-editing technology to the highest bidder!"

Lin Yu remained silent. He closed his eyes, his right eye, the "Emperor's Eye," working frantically, trying to capture the last remaining clue on the poster.

[Analyzing image noise...]

[Hidden watermark detected: Coordinates being located.]

Match result: Myanmar, deep in the Savage Mountains, abandoned Soviet radar station.

"Found it." Lin Yu suddenly opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing in them. "Not in international waters, nor overseas. Right under our noses, at the 'Ghost Eye' base in the Savage Mountain."

"A ghost eye?" Acha was taken aback. "Isn't that place supposed to be haunted and abandoned long ago?"

"That's cover." Lin Yu stood up, picked up a tactical backpack he had prepared from the corner, and said, "They're using the deep-buried structure of the abandoned base as shielding to conduct illegal experiments. Acha, you stay here to monitor the dark web and be ready to cut off their live stream signal at any time. I'll take the assault team to take down that rat hole."

"Big brother!" Suya suddenly rushed in from the doorway, her face pale. "I don't want you to go! That photo... that organization is too dangerous, they said I am..."

"Listen, Suya." Lin Yu walked over, placing his hands on her shoulders, his gaze firm yet gentle. "You're not some code name, nor are you some experimental subject. You're my sister, my only family in this world. No matter how much that so-called 'genetic map' is worth, no matter what conspiracy lies behind it, I will tear it to shreds, burying that organization along with it!"

Suya threw herself into Lin Yu's arms, her tears soaking his clothes.

Half an hour later, a Black Hawk helicopter without any markings quietly took off and disappeared into the night.

The Savage Mountain, shrouded in mist and clouds year-round, is known as a "death zone".

The helicopter made an emergency landing five kilometers from the radar station. Lin Yu led an elite special operations team, quickly traversing the dense primeval jungle.

"Mr. Lin, there are infrared warning lights ahead," the forward reported in a low voice.

Lin Yu raised his hand to signal to stop. He closed his left eye, and his right eye, the "Emperor's Eye," instantly switched to spectrum analysis mode.

In the field of vision, countless red laser beams intertwined in the air, forming a web of death.

"Move three steps to the left, crouch down. Avoid the first level. Then slide two meters to the right and crawl underneath." Lin Yu calmly gave the coordinates. "Be quiet, they have vibration sensors."

The squad members held their breath and moved through the defenses like ghosts.

When they were less than 100 meters from the core building of the radar station, an unexpected change occurred.

Suddenly, a piercing alarm sounded inside the base, and the previously dark building was instantly illuminated.

"We've been spotted!" the team member shouted.

"No, it's a trap." Lin Yu's face darkened. "They knew we were coming."

Before he could finish speaking, the searchlights on the top of the base suddenly swept over, illuminating Lin Yu and the others as if it were daytime.

A voice from a loudspeaker boomed from above, tinged with mockery: "Welcome, Hero Lin. I knew you'd come."

Lin Yu looked up and saw a tall, thin man in a trench coat standing on the rooftop of the main building, holding a mobile phone, obviously doing a live broadcast.

"Want the data? Want your sister's innocence?" The man in the trench coat laughed maniacally, tossing a transparent USB drive between his fingers. "Then come and get it! But let me warn you, this building is loaded with enough explosives to level this place. You have ten minutes. If you can find the data core, you win!"

"Spread out and attack!" Lin Yu decisively ordered. "Snipers, hold the rooftop! Everyone else, follow me and charge in!"

Gunfire erupted.

Lin Yu did not follow the main group through the main entrance. Instead, he used his "Emperor's Eye" to analyze the building's structure and discovered an abandoned ventilation duct leading underground.

The pipes were dark and narrow, filled with a putrid smell.

"System, scan for surrounding electronic signals."

[A high-intensity encrypted signal source has been detected, located on the third basement level.]

[Warning: Countdown timer detected. Time remaining: 8 minutes and 32 seconds.]

Lin Yu ran frantically through the darkness, his lungs burning. He had to get the core data before the bomb detonated, or before the dark web auction ended.

Finally, he rushed into a huge underground machine room.

In the center of the computer room, a supercomputer was humming, and the auction price was constantly rising on the screen.

There was no one guarding the chair in front of the computer. There was only an automatic camera pointing at a glass display case containing an old-fashioned server hard drive—that should be the physical carrier of the core data.

"Luring them in deep..." Lin Yu sneered, "Do you really think I wouldn't dare take it?"

He was about to grab the hard drive when he discovered that the display case was connected by a complex network of wires.

[WARNING: Biometric lock detected.]

[WARNING: High-energy explosive C4 detected, connected to a heart rate monitor.]

It turns out the man in the trench coat wasn't lying. This display case not only requires a specific genetic code (that is, Suya's blood) to open, but the bomb will also detonate immediately if the operator's heart rate exceeds 120 beats per minute.

This is the cruelty of the "Phoenix" organization. They knew Lin Yu would come, and they knew he would fight desperately. They were betting that Lin Yu, under pressure, wouldn't be able to operate calmly and would ultimately only watch as the data and themselves were blown to pieces.

"Heartbeat 118...119..."

Lin Yu took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He closed his eyes and mobilized all the computing power of the "Emperor's Eye" to simulate every tiny movement of his fingers.

"System, take over my hand micro-operations."

[Connecting to neural networks... Connection successful.]

Lin Yu suddenly opened his eyes, his right index finger as steady as a scalpel, without even a tremor. He precisely avoided the trigger line and gently pressed the fingerprint recognition area on the display case—the system vulnerability he had just identified during his analysis, a verification window with a time limit of 0.01 seconds.

"Beep—Verification successful."

The cabinet door popped open.

Lin Yu grabbed the hard drive, and at the same time his right eye caught sight of the inconspicuous red timer in the corner of the computer room.

"30 seconds left."

Without any hesitation, he grabbed the hard drive, turned around, and rushed towards the ventilation duct.

"boom--!!!"

The moment he leaped out of the pipe, a deafening explosion erupted behind him. The massive blast wave sent Lin Yu flying, crashing heavily to the ground.

Flames shot into the sky, illuminating half of the night sky.

Lin Yu climbed out of the ruins, spitting out a mouthful of blood, clutching the hard drive tightly in his hand.

Just then, his phone vibrated. Acha sent a message: "Dark web livestream has been cut off, auction terminated. Global law enforcement agencies have begun operations based on the IP address you intercepted!"

Lin Yu looked at the scorching hot hard drive in his hand, a tired but victorious smile appearing on his lips.

"Suya," he murmured to himself, "your past has been locked away for you by your brother."

However, what he didn't notice was a tiny label on the back of the hard drive with a line of small print:

"This is just a copy. The real 'Phoenix' will rise from the ashes."